As Japan saw the second-earliest start of a nationwide influenza outbreak, the flu is also spreading in Kumamoto Prefecture, which was hit by a powerful earthquake in July. With more than 1,300 people still staying at evacuation centers two months after the July 28 temblor that registered the maximum 7 on Japan’s seismic intensity scale, an expert has stressed the importance of getting vaccinated early.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Monday 28th September that the number of influenza cases reported by around 3,000 designated medical institutions nationwide between Sept. 14 and 20 averaged 8.48 per institution. The figure was 1.53 times higher than the previous week, continuing an upward trend and approaching the “alert” level of 10 cases per institution.
Ahead of Respect for the Aged Day in Japan on Monday, the National Institute of Technology and Evaluation warned of accidents involving nursing beds or wheelchairs and urged elderly people to review proper usage with their families and care workers. According to NITE, there were 43 nursing bed accidents affecting elderly people between 2016 and 2025, including 23 cases in which users’ bodies were caught in handrail and other gaps.
Japan’s welfare ministry on Friday began considering a plan to raise nursing care insurance premiums for high-income earners aged 65 or older from fiscal 2027. Under the latest proposal, the ministry plans to raise the highest rate, applied to people with annual incomes of 7.2 million yen or more. It also plans to divide lower-income brackets into smaller categories to curb sharp increases in premiums when people move into a higher rate bracket.
In an Osaka neighborhood long known as a home for day laborers, elderly residents with no family to rely on are arranging their funerals in advance — and making sure they are there to see one another off.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has, for the first time, indicated that nursing-care insurance premiums can be fully exempted when elderly people, including those with dementia, go missing and their families continue to be responsible for paying the premiums. The ministry has notified local governments across Japan of this policy.
“It was irresponsible to leave and run away when he could have predicted the risk of collision with the following car,” Judge Yuko Ito of Tokyo District Court said. “The degree of accusation is high considering that he was a professional driver.” Ito added that the accused fault was not serious because he had turned the steering wheel after seeing the victim about 30 meters before the collision.
In the aftermath of the Kumamoto Earthquake, a new support center is working to reach people with disabilities who have been left without assistance and are unable to speak up for themselves. With many still isolated in their homes and surrounded by the destruction, local and national support organizations are joining forces to identify those in need and deliver help where government support has yet to reach.
The number of residents in facilities for people with disabilities across Hokkaido is on a declining trend, reaching a record low of 9,026 in fiscal year 2024 according to the latest statistics, an investigation by the prefecture and other sources revealed. However, the pace of this transition falls far short of government targets, prompting experts to point out that “the national government must outline a concrete roadmap.”
Evacuee life poses various challenges for those with disabilities, the elderly and other vulnerable people following last month’s massive earthquake that struck the southwestern Japan prefecture of Kumamoto. Keisuke Wakiyama, a 49-year-old evacuee with hearing loss living at an evacuation center in the city of Kumamoto, said he initially went without food because he was unaware that disaster relief goods were being handed out.
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